Why am I spending all this money on social media? Where’s the ROI? Why should I spend more? If it’s not making me money, it’s not worthwhile.

Presence: Build your brand on Social Media

It’s no surprise that online retail figures increase year on year. Consider the immediacy, accessibility, portability, connectivity, and interactivity offered by the internet and, more importantly, mobile. Convenience.

In an increasingly digital world, these factors play an ever-increasing role in building brands.

You may have premises and a presence on the high street. It’s more than likely that you have your own website, a personal Facebook page, a Twitter account, an Instagram account and a LinkedIn profile. Or any combination of social media profiles.

But now, more than ever, it is essential to have a business presence on social media to build your brand. Globally.

With 2.91 billion social media users to target, you’d be stupid not to.

Audience: Engage your customers on Social Media

Remember those key factors mentioned above; Immediacy, accessibility, portability, connectivity, and interactivity? These are the cornerstones of social media. This is what the 2.91 billion social media users expect from their online experience.

Immediate gratification. Global portable access and connectivity. The desire to engage in interactions.

Social media offers all of this. So should your business.

Use your social media platforms to engage with your customers. Have a conversation with them. Update them with your latest endeavours. Inform them. Entertain them. Persuade them. Give them a reason to like you.

Create content. Lots of it. Draw them in. Start the conversation. Encourage them to comment. Motivate them to share.

Conversions: Share, share, share across your Social Media Platforms

Social media now accounts for more traffic than search engine queries.

Simply posting an update once and expecting that single update to get maximum attention is laughable.

Imagine a busy marketplace on a Saturday morning with every vendor selling their produce at the top of their lungs. Repeating their offer on a continuous loop. Competing to be the loudest. This is what you are up against on social media.

The average Twitter or Facebook timeline is filled with status updates. New updates are made every second, shifting the previous ones down the timeline into near oblivion. If you only post one update, it will be drowned out by all the chatter, rendering your message virtually unnoticeable.

If you want to maximise your conversions, you have to stand out.

Share. Become that energetic and determined market vendor. Repeat yourself on a continuous loop. Make yourself heard above all the noise on a busy timeline. Share your content. Share your offers (especially key ones). And share them frequently.

Multiple shares, across your various social media platforms will boost your conversions and engagement.

Your next step is to get traffic from your social media platforms to convert into email subscribers. Routing this traffic to your website or a specific landing page for subscribers is one way of making it easy for you to follow up and boost conversions.

Traffic: The route to ROI

Social media has become the number one driver of referral traffic to websites. No surprise there!

But, getting that traffic to your website requires a strategy.

The simplest way to route prospective customers/clients from social media to your website is giving them an incentive.

Offer coupons, discounts, giveaways or some other incentive to get them to subscribe to your email list. Given the amount of email spam the average person finds in their inbox, it’s unlikely that anyone will simply subscribe to your mailing list without a bit of a sweetener to lure them in.

Providing an incentive will convert a significant proportion of your social traffic.

It’s time to make a PACT

So what’s the value of social media for businesses? Where’s the ROI?

Presence. Audience. Conversions. Traffic. Make a PACT and you will secure a return on that investment.

Written by Gareth Alvarez, Content Marketing ManagerTo get in touch with Gareth, you can email him directly on gareth.alvarez@socialink.co